Toronto Blue Jays

Blue Jays left-hander J.A. Happ departed the field on a stretcher after taking a Desmond Jennings line drive off the left side of his head in the second inning of his start Tuesday evening against the Rays. Happ appeared to be conversing with paramedics as they led him off in a cart, but his neck…

Braves 7, Reds 4: The Braves weren’t going to be able to maintain any sort of momentum if the offense was all Justin Upton — who can’t do it alone — and Evan Gattis — who is, after all, a rookie. Last night they had help from Andrelton Simmons who hit two bombs and drove…

Cardinals 10, Brewers 1: The four-game sweep of the Brewers. Four RBI for Allen Craig. That’s six straight wins for the Cards, who are in their customary first place position in rather quiet fashion. The six first place teams right now: Boston, Detroit, Texas, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Francisco. Not many surprises there. I guess…

Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey appeared to be getting back on track having logged quality starts in three out of his last four appearances entering this afternoon’s match against the offensively-impotent Mariners. Over six innings today, though, the right-hander allowed three home runs, including a first inning lead-off home run to Michael Saunders (his first…

More bad news for the Blue Jays, who placed Josh Johnson on the disabled list with a triceps injury after initially holding out hope that he could start Friday. Instead they’ll call up Ricky Romero, who’d been banished to the minors after a miserable 2012 season that saw him go 1-13 with a 7.35 ERA…

R.A. Dickey has been bothered by neck and back problems for most of the season, but an MRI exam showed no structural damage and the Blue Jays announced that he’s expected to take his normal turn in the rotation Saturday against the Mariners. Toronto manager John Gibbons told John Lott of the National Post that…

Bill Madden of the Daily News reports that the Blue Jays, off to an awful start, held a players-only, closed-door meeting yesterday DeRosa would later call a players-only meeting to reiterate a lot of what beleaguered Blue Jay manager John Gibbons said to the media the day before … “There’s just a bad vibe creeping in…

Yesterday R.A. Dickey gave up a homer to Lyle Overbay in the seventh inning. The next batter, Eduardo Nunez, came up to bat, but before he did he called time, had the trainer come out and help him get something out of his eye. At least that’s what appeared to happen. Dickey says it was…

With all due respect to Nationals starter Jordan Zimmermann, the author of a one-hit shutout against the Cincinnati Reds, Anibal Sanchez was tonight’s best pitcher. The right-hander, who signed a five-year, $80 million contract with the Tigers back in December, shut out the Braves with a franchise record 17 strikeouts over eight innings. The Braves…

At this rate, the Yankees might run out of players. Two more players are headed to the infirmary as pitcher Ivan Nova and catcher Francisco Cervelli both exited tonight’s game against the Blue Jays with injuries. Cervelli hurt his hand on a foul ball from Jays batter Rajai Davis in the first inning, per ESPN’s…

Guys, you’re not gonna believe this, but Josh Johnson is hurt: More bad news for #bluejays. Aaron Laffey will start tonight in place of Josh Johnson, who has right triceps tightness. — Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) April 26, 2013 Nothing new for Johnson, of course. When he’s healthy he can be dominant, but since becoming…

Baltimore had won 17 straight extra-inning games dating back to April 11, 2012, but that streak came to an end this afternoon against Toronto. Orioles closer Jim Johnson, who’d been such a huge part of all their late- and extra-inning success, walked Maicer Izturis with the bases loaded to force in the go-ahead run in…

Red Sox 9, Athletics 6: Just yesterday Mike Napoli was named player of the week for last week. He’s making a bid for a repeat now, hitting a grand slam and driving in five runs here. Overall he has 25 RBI in 19 games. Orioles 2, Blue Jays 1: Chris Tillman had a one hitter…

T.J. Quinn and Mike Fish of ESPN.com report that the spokeswoman for Robinson Cano‘s charitable foundation was named in the documents of Biogenesis, the now defunct Miami anti-aging clinic which has launched an investigation by Major League Baseball into players’ alleged use of performance enhancing drugs: The spokeswoman for Robinson Cano’s foundation is listed as having…

Not only is Travis Hafner hitting .319 with a 1.120 OPS for the Yankees, he’s turned back to the clock to when he was a bunting, base-stealing machine. Well, actually he’s never been either of those things. Until yesterday, that is. Hafner stole second base without a throw, which was his first steal since 2010…

Angels 4, Tigers 3: Watched most of this one as I painted a couple of rooms in my house. Two highlights of the game for me were (1) overhearing my girlfriend use some really bad language the second or third time the Tigers left the bases loaded; and (2) Tigers color commentator Rod Allen, when describing…

It’s been a tough start to the 2013 season for Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista. He missed a few games in the first week with an ankle sprain, and missed the entirety of his team’s recently-completed four-game series against the White Sox due to back spasms. Much to the delight of Jays fans, Bautista is…

The good news for Mets prospect Travis d’Arnaud is that he won’t need surgery to repair a non-displaced fracture in his left foot. The bad news is that manager Terry Collins told Adam Rubin of ESPN New York that the Triple-A catcher is expected to miss eight weeks. d’Arnaud was off to a solid start…

Orioles 10, Rays 6: Time to re-bookmark Matt Wieters Facts. The Chosen One’s grand slam in the 10th gives the O’s their 17th straight extra innings win. Diamondbacks 6, Yankees 2: Frankie Cervelli hit a homer to tie it in the ninth. He also had two — not one, but two — catcher’s interference calls.…

According to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca, R.A. Dickey left his start against the White Sox tonight for precautionary reasons due to neck and back tightness. He was visited by a trainer after he struck out DeWayne Wise swinging for the second out in the sixth inning, but he stayed on to complete the frame. Esmil…

Miami has placed starting shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria on the disabled list with a bruised right elbow suffered Wednesday during pregame warmups. Like most of the Marlins he was off to a bad start, hitting just .184 in 14 games, but Hechavarria is around for his defense at shortstop and the Marlins’ unappealing fill-in options include…

It’s a moot point with John Buck doing his best Babe Ruth impression, but any thoughts of the Mets calling up catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud are on hold because of a foot injury. Marc Carig of New York Newsday reports that d’Arnaud suffered a non-displaced fracture thanks to taking a foul ball off his left foot…

Toronto made a huge splash this offseason, but general manager Alex Anthopoulos has hinted that he was close to pulling off another big move that fell through. According to Shi Davidi of SportsNet that move would have been trading for White Sox right-hander Jake Peavy. Peavy had a $22 million team option that the White…

Red Sox 3, Rays 2: Mike Napoli‘s RBI double in the ninth sent everyone home happy. The happiness would last less than an hour after game time, sadly. The Red Sox are now in Cleveland, which all things considered is probably a good thing. Padres 6, Dodgers 3: No one threw at anyone, so that’s…